Aap! - Alternative Advertising Possibilities

So forget mobile, forget buzz agents, forget alternative reality marketing – the future has arrived – or so think the unusual and neglected branch who practice and execute aroma marketing.

No – we aren’t talking about scratch and sniff stickers or those perfume samples in fashion magazines, we’re talking about complete turnkey solutions in scenting your world.

As ScentAir describes, aroma marketing is a way to

Break through mundane and overused marketing gimmicks to reach customers emotionally

Lets start with some background >

“The scent industry, which accounts for $14 billion in global sales each year, s booming. Our sense of smell is handled by the same part of the brain that processes memory, so scent often triggers an emotional response, which, in turn, positively impacts scented sales. Since scent is the closest sense linked to memory, people recall smell with up to 64% accuracy after one year. Harnessing this power, and using it to gain consumer attention for products outside of the perfume and potpourri industry, is the goal of an emerging, sense driven movement… Scent technology helps distinguish businesses and connect with customers in a way that is not possible without it� > Phil Lembert’s Xtreme Retail�

$14 Billion.  Wow.

So who is an innovative leader in this space?

ScentAir – an east coast American leader with clients as diverse and varied from major beer makers to apparel distributors.

Their core product line up includes a series of smell production units that serve to create fragrances for consumers in store experiences.

A recent Raleigh News & Observer overviewed their technology >

“Customers rent ScentWave blower machines and cartridges for $99 month. The toaster-size blower fits in a wall and can sit in a corner of the room or right inside a ventilation system. A cartridge inside the machine holds oils and fragrances for at least a month. The blower can disperse scents within a 4,000-square-foot area, using a timer or by motion, such as when a customer walks by.|

Interesting – effective? Definitely.

The aap! gorilla grunts in approval but as innovative and effective as it is, we stress that it won’t work everywhere.  Take Japan for example – scene marketing – won’t work.  Japanese consumes enjoy an absence of smell.  Smells are intrusive and intrude into personal spaces.  Most perfume in Japan is bought but never used, kept on shelves  - visual trophy - but for an ever growing and artificial corporate world ScentAir appears to bring value and credibility.

Serving to illustrate is the Exxon Gas Station Case Study from the ScentAir Website:

The challenge – new coffee machines and products did not produce the necessary and sale generating aroma coffee? While I can’t imagine the taste of this aromaless coffee – ScentAir provided a cure.  Utilizing their ScentPop platform –  Exxon gas station food mart locations became beacons of coffee aroma.  Sales increased and customers pleased.

But – warning!  Take lesson!

Take what Simon Harrop, an agency directory learned from his experience with Aroma marketing.  The agency (name omitted) created and worked with aroma specialists to create a sequence of fragrances for positioning a the bank’s brand “ as “personable, proper, fresh and new.� Filtered through the air systems at branches, sprayed on chequebooks, integrated across stationary, the project failed and was deemed as too expensive and unconstructive to sales.

Aroma Marketing 2.0

So what else is sparking our interest in the world of aroma marketing.

Well a variety of technologis that deliver custom scents to individuals.  Think personalization.

A very cool and potential product developed by Yasuyuki YANAGIDA and other researchers at ATR – MIS (Media Information Labs Japa) is the scent projector, an air cannon that launches vortex rings, which can travel several meters. Because Scent Projectors emit only a small amount of scented air, different scents can be delivered within a short time frame without air conditioning equipment.

Exciting and Mixed with other sensory experiences the applications and usage are varied. I people at home people could enjoy movies or videogames featuring smell switching that corresponds to changes in scenes or advertisers could provide a series of short “scented” commercial messages to be broadcasted on TV, artists could add odors to multimodal pieces without worrying about mixing smells from adjacent works in an exhibit.

Future versions of SpotScents will closely combine the olfactory experience with audio/visual content, so users can feel the air of “the world beyond the screen.”

Will web developers code scents into applets to load upon release or will technology like this be back burned like our childhood Nintendo Robot?

You decide.

Either way the lesson is important for marketers and brands alike – integrate, create value, and presence across sensory spaces.

From handrails to the scented air – targeting today’s consumers requires new originality and creativity.

Sniff.  More Stinky Research at http://www.mis.atr.jp/sem/scent.html